Earth Island Institute's Ric O'Barry has worked with dolphins the vast majority of his life. He spent the first 10 years of his career in the dolphin captivity industry, and the past 38 years fighting against it. We recently caught up with Ric, star of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, for a closer look at the issues that motivate him. For more about Ric O'Barry, visit his bio.
In The Cove, you say that ending the dolphin slaughter in Japan is the key to ending all dolphin drives. Why is that?
I think it is, because if the Cove in Taiji closes — and I think it will — it would close for a reason. The reason is that dolphin meat is contaminated. They use the dolphin meat for fertilizer, pet food and human consumption, and we now know — because we've been testing it for the last six years — that all dolphin and whale meat around the coast of Japan is contaminated. The fact that they're still selling this dolphin meat, when they know it's contaminated, takes it out of the realm of animal rights and puts it into the realm of human rights. People have a right to know that the dolphin meat is contaminated, and they don't know. There's no warning label on the package. So we feel that if we can get a warning label, the consumers won't buy the product.
Has getting photos and video of dolphin slaughter been the most effective way to get the public's attention? If so, why do you feel that it is?
The Academy Awards is the most popular television show in Japan. People pay attention. There's 126 million people, by the way, in Japan. Many of them know about this issue because of The Cove. When it gets into DVD format, they can watch it in the privacy of their home. That's when it's going to have the most impact. That's really where it needs to be shown the most: Japan. That's where the largest slaughter of dolphins in the world takes place. And the captures are related. The captures are the economic underpinning of the dolphin slaughter. We think because of The Cove and Blood Dolphins on Animal Planet, we can shut it down.
Was gaining access to the Solomon Islands more difficult or easier than gaining access to Taiji?
Working in the Solomon Islands is really, really hard. It's very different than Taiji, because Japan is very civilized and... By the way, I like Japan. I like Japan and I like the Japanese people. I think the Japanese people are being blamed for something they're not guilty of. One percent of the Japanese people eat whale meat. One percent. A very small percentage of that one percent have ever even heard of eating dolphin meat. In Taiji, for example, there's 3,444 people. There's only 13 boats that are killing the dolphins. Two men in each boat. We're talking about 26 guys, not an entire country. And that's the reason we are opposed to the boycott as a tactic to solve this problem.
So you're saying there's 26 guys...
Yeah, there's 26 guys in Taiji who are killing dolphins, plus 50 more who are involved in the slaughterhouse and such. So Japanese people aren't doing it, and to boycott Japan to solve the problem is a blanket indictment against all Japanese people. It's a form of racism. So we at Earth Island Institute want to work with the Japanese people, not against them.
That's a really good point.
Yeah, it's that "they" word. "Look what 'they' do." It isn't "they." There's specifically 26 guys doing this, not the entire town. Most Japanese people who live in Taiji are very respectful of nature. You should be so lucky to live in a town where you don't have to lock your doors at night, you don't have to take the key out of the ignition in the car, you never have to lock your bicycle. That's how it is in Taiji. Most people are very respectful.
That ties into our next question, which is: Is it possible to be respectful of other cultures and put an end to dolphin slaughter?
Yeah, it is possible! I do that. I'm very respectful of the people in the Solomon Islands and in Japan, where I work (I spend most of my time there). We're not cultural imperialists. We went to the Solomon Islands — you'll see this in Blood Dolphins. We went there to listen and to learn, not to "tell" them or to lay a trip on them. It's not "whitey" showing up telling everybody what to do. It's really about listening to them. And what we learned — sleeping on the ground, around the campfire, talking, living with them — was that what they're doing is not sustainable. They pretty much told us that their children are not going to do this. "It's too hard, it's too much work, and we have to paddle 20 miles out to sea to find the dolphins." What they're saying is that nature is saying "this is not sustainable." And so if you are open to change, Earth Island is there to support that. And they went for it. And after 400 years of killing dolphins, on April 8, 2010, we were there with Animal Planet, and it stopped. I mean it stopped as quickly as the Berlin Wall came down. And it was incredible, this historic moment my son was able to capture on video. And you can see it on Animal Planet.
Over time has it gotten a little more difficult to enter these countries?
In Japan in particular, the potential for violence escalates with every trip I take, because the people you're having the problem with — the Taiji dolphin hunters — become angrier and angrier as they get more and more exposed around the world. It's almost at the point where I can't go there anymore. I wear disguises when I am there. I'll be going back there on September 1. The dolphin killing season goes through September 1 to March, and I'll be there many times during that period.
Do you feel the activism work you have been doing has been paying off?
It has been paying off, and that's really what keeps me going. If I didn't see any results, I would've stopped a long time ago. I've been doing this for 40 years, since Earth Day 1970, and I have seen a lot of dolphin parks, substandard dolphin parks, close down. Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Haiti, Brazil... places where we've shown up and rescued dolphins from swimming pools, rehabilitated them and released them back into the wild. And then the Minister of the Environment from Haiti, or Colombia, or wherever, will pass a law outlawing dolphin captivity. So yeah, I see a lot of results.
Has your cause gained momentum in recent years, specifically since the release of The Cove and talk of the new Blood Dolphins series?
Yeah. I see the multi-billion-dollar dolphin captivity industry doing a makeover. If you watch the ads, they're trying to project themselves as conservationists. That's a measure of our success, I think. I think people are starting to question the educational value of a dolphin show. Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of success.
Since the release of The Cove, what kind of additional support have you seen coming in from people?
The Cove movie has created a lot of activists. That's the revolutionary thing that's happened. And I think you're going to see more of this when Blood Dolphins airs on Animal Planet. People want to get involved. They want to do something. So I send them to this website, EarthIsland.org, and urge them to channel that energy into doing things. One of the most important things people can do is — it sounds very simplistic, but it is the solution — and that is: don't buy a ticket for a dolphin show. That industry is based on supply and demand, like any other product, and if people don't buy the product, they're going to have to change.
What's it like working with a crew? Do you normally work alone or do you usually have a few people with you?
I gotta tell you, my son sometimes has to remind me, "Hey Dad, we're doing a television show here!" Because I'm not conscious of that. I'm just doing what I normally do. My day job with Earth Island is about rescuing dolphins and getting them out of harm's way. So I'm just doing my day job. But it's wonderful working with my son. I used to leave home when he was growing up to do this work. I was sort of a lone wolf through all of those years, almost 40 years. What he's doing is more effective than what I was doing. I'm walking around with a protest sign and reaching a few people; he's walking around with a camera reaching a few million people. So, uh, why didn't I think of that? *laughs*
What is your ultimate goal for the IWC (International Whaling Commission)?
My ultimate goal is to be put out of business so I'm not needed. As far as the IWC is concerned, my personal opinion is that it's dysfunctional. It's a ship of fools who will go down in history for failing to do their job. We're really counting on people, the consumers, not so much the International Whaling Commission.
